What the World Misses
by RicardianScholar Clark-Weasley
Summary: Fred, Neville, Luna, Mrs Weasley think about how blind the world is when it comes to Harry, Ron, and Hermione


Fred Weasley wondered if the world was just blind.

It does not take a genius to figure out that Harry Potter had a terrible childhood. You would have to be blind to not see how small and skinny he is, how his clothes are second hand, how he flinches at the smallest touch, and how pale he gets when someone is shouting abuse. And yet the world persists on calling him a pampered prince, a spoilt celebrity, a well cared for child.

It does not take a genius to figure out that Ron Weasley stopped being a child when he was twelve years old. You would have to be deaf to not hear the nightmares during the summer before second year, to not hear that worried undertone when Errol fails to return with a reply, to not hear the tone that implies he knows how cruel the world is. And yet his mother persists on calling him and his friends' children.

Everyone seemed to miss Harry taking his very first step of overcoming his evasion of being touched and allowing Hermione hug him and Ron to keep his hand on Harry's shoulder. Everyone seemed to miss Harry initiating his first piece of physical contact as he took Ron and Hermione's hand during the feast at the end of their First Year.

They of course all missed the small beaten boy, with cracked ribs, severe bruising, and sickly appearance rush over and fling his arms round Ron's neck through the bars covering his bedroom window. They all missed Ron asking to be taught how to make the right healing potions so he could make them for Harry. They all missed Ron holding Harry's hair back as he vomited the large breakfast their mother had shoved down his throat in the back garden. They all missed the careful tender strokes Hermione was giving Harry's shoulder during that trip through Diagon Alley.

They didn't see how close Ron and Hermione stood on either side of Harry as if to protect him from attackers after Lockhart and Colin's ambush on the first day. They didn't see the nights spent sleeping on the sofa together the trio did after Mrs Norris was attacked. They didn't see the dark circles under Ron's and Hermione's eyes when Harry spent the night in the Hospital Wing. They didn't see the fights Ron got in defending Harry's honour and the tender way Harry and Hermione looked after the bruises he earned. No one saw the dark sudden adult glint in Harry and Ron's eyes when Hermione had been attacked.

They all missed the beginnings of a strong bond being developed.

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Neville Longbottom is invisible to the world and therefore he sees things that everyone else misses.

By being quiet and shy Neville was given a front row seat in watching Harry Potter and who he interacted with. And he wonders why people don't notice that occasionally as they walk to class Hermione would hold both Ron's and Harry's hands. Why Dean and Seamus haven't noticed the nightmares Harry has and how quick Ron is to comfort him and how the following morning Hermione would embrace Harry for a full five minutes. Why no one else could see the longing looks the three of them give one another when they weren't speaking to each other. Why no one else could see that one time where Harry was crying in Third Year just before Christmas and Ron and Hermione sat there with him, wiping his tears away and holding him as he sobbed.

He didn't think that Harry even knew that when he and Ron weren't talking Ron had put a Hufflepuff into the Hospital Wing because he was badmouthing Harry. And he had given Malfoy a black eye after the whole Potter Stinks/Hermione's teeth being hexed incident. No one else saw that after Ron apologised to Harry that Harry was skipping back to the school and he was holding Ron's hand while Hermione held Ron's other hand.

Neville wondered how anyone could miss how Harry hovered around Ron and Hermione after the Second Task. He would look at them as if they were to vanish any moment without a single word. How could anyone miss the overprotective stance Ron and Hermione had after the Third Task. How during those moments when everyone thought Harry and Cedric were both dead Ron and Hermione clung to one another as they were each other's last hopes. How Ron would be practically holding Harry up and pulling him to the nearest chair during those last few days of Fourth Year. How Hermione was piling Harry's plate with food and giving him a stern look and encouragement to eat. How Harry looked like the world was going to end as they stepped across the barrier and into King Cross Station, with Hermione heading towards her parents, and Ron to his, leaving Harry all alone.

How could people not see how pale and ill Harry looked during Fifth Year? How could people not see that after those long detentions with Umbridge Hermione would have to tend Harry's bleeding hand and Ron had the urge to hit something? How could people not see that after those detentions, if they had not argued over something, Harry would sleep between Ron and Hermione in Ron's bed? How could people not see that Harry would look at Ron and Hermione before gaining his courage to speak in the DA?

Umbridge irritates all of the students. They were all at the age where they no longer wanted to be treated like children and she uses the worst sickly sweet voice when addressing them, her words and treatment make them feel like five, to her they might as well be five. She created her own downfall if she thought Ron, Hermione, and Harry where little five year olds easily intimidated by her threatening undertone. They weren't children. Harry has never been one and Hermione knows too much to act like one, and Ron grew up so quickly that he might as well never been one.

On the train home after Fifth Year Neville felt so very young and naive next to those three. Their eyes were old and worn as if they seen wars from centuries ago. They looked like adults despite the smooth skin, short height, lack of curves for Hermione, and lack of facial hair on Harry and Ron. On that train journey Harry would look like the world had ended when Ron and Hermione did their prefect duty. He didn't relax until they had returned to their compartment and even then Neville only saw him fully relaxed when he drifted to a light doze on Ron's shoulder with Hermione's feet on his lap as she read.

The world missed out on three young adults who have suffered dreadfully due to the world's neglect and fallen in a complicated thing with one another.

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Luna Lovegood saw things that people didn't even want to think about let alone admit. She saw the subtle changes in one person and the slightest change in temperatures when something touching a difficult topic is said. She was a very observant person and that often unnerved people.

Luna could see a distance being enforced between Harry, Ron, and Hermione. It was not wanted or really needed but the three for some reason felt compelled to put it there. It was as if they had realised that they were unnaturally (in the narrow-minded repressed society they all lived in) close and needed to find a way to live without the other two.

Harry was attracted to Ginny because she was a pretty teenage girl who played Qudditch. It was the same reason he was attracted to Cho and what happened with Cho would one day happen with Ginny, Hermione and probably Ron will get in the way and destroy whatever relationship Harry and Ginny created. Harry was trying to convince himself that he loved Ginny, and he does, just not in the way he should according to society, as Luna noted that Ginny's hair was the same shade as Ron's and her eyes were just as warm and brown as Hermione's.

Hermione and Ron could not survive without Harry. Harry could not survive without Hermione and Ron. It was all very doomed to begin with this distancing thing. Ginny is lovely, she really is, but she says some horrible things sometimes and has a terrible temper, therefore she destroyed a little of the trust between Ron, Hermione, and Harry by informing Ron about how they have been kissed by other people before.

Lavender's crush was simply bad timing and Ron determined to make Hermione and Harry feel what he felt took advantage of it.

Hermione the most upset did not talk to Ron at all while Harry couldn't talk to Ron because Lavender was in the way. Hermione desperate to be the best and, this is one of her biggest flaws, unable to accept there are other ways of thinking, began to get jealous at Harry's improved skill in potions because of a set of different instructions he had been using. Because of this silly jealousy Harry could not always talk to Hermione and the three of them looked very ill apart from one another.

Luna knew, from Neville as he is the only one to talk to her properly and she is the only one who listens to him, that despite their problems when Harry is having a bad day. One of those days where you cannot get out of bed as every depressing thing in your life is on your mind, and poor Harry does have a lot of depressing things on his mind, when Harry is having such a bad day, Hermione and Ron would work together in a gentle coxing way as they got Harry out of bed, washed, dressed, and at breakfast where they proceed to convince him to eat. It is simply one of those things everyone misses because they think Ron and Hermione are not talking to one another and Harry is an invincible hero.

No one but Luna knows that the year Voldemort had control over Hogwarts and the Ministry Hermione, Ron, and Harry mended that distance and was closer than ever. Fleur, Bill, and Dean all missed the slight touches, the heated looks, the nights spent curled against one another in Shell Cottage. Griphook did not and he too commented to her how stupid wizards are to notice what was going on between the three teenagers.

"They're too young to be fighting," he grumbled under his breath whenever she was in earshot. "Far too young to be feeling what they are feeling. Far too complicated, far too true and pure, the wizardry world will never understand and therefore will never appreciate them."

She agreed with him while Bill looked very confused.

Ron and Hermione looked destroyed, near death themselves, when Hagrid came in carrying Harry's body. They looked like that everything good was gone, that everything they lived for was gone, and that their lives were no longer worth living for. Everyone else was far too busy thinking about how their symbol of hope was killed to even notice this. When Harry was alive and Voldemort dead, it was Ron and Hermione that got there first to hug him and they held him so tightly as to reassure themselves that his heart was still beating and he was still there with them. Ginny was three seconds too late because she hesitated a little and she had to wait impatiently for Ron and Hermione to let go so she could even reach Harry.

It was Ron and Hermione that Harry wanted to be with after all the chaos was over. It was Ron and Hermione that Harry relaxed against and fell asleep against when exhaustion took over. Two days after the battle and the three of them were still asleep they were that tired. Ginny was becoming restless as she wanted to talk to Harry about their relationship.

Luna decided it was time to tell Ginny what she had been missing because she was so blind and caught up in what Harry should be and her feelings for that mythical man. That it was time to tell Ginny that Harry wasn't that bothered when he broke up with her. That he did not ask about Ginny when he was at Shell Cottage. That he would never be in love with Ginny because his heart was taken by two other people.

It sounded cold but sometimes you must be cruel to be kind. It is an evil necessary.

"Ginny...we need to talk."

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Molly Weasley could not understand what she had missed.

She had thought now it was all over Hermione, Ron, and Harry would go back to Hogwarts with Ginny to do the year they missed and then they'll go into the Ministry, get very good safe jobs, get married Ron to Hermione, Harry to Ginny, and everyone will be happy. But for some reason it was not happening. Harry, Hermione and Ron announced they were going to attempt to sit their NEWTS in two months time and the Ministry and the three of them suddenly pulled away from everyone in favour of revising. At first Molly thought it was just their way of grieving for Fred, Remus and Tonks but then it turned out they visited Bill and Fleur once a week, they take care of Teddy together all the time, they have dinners and days out with that stupid teenager gang known as Dumbledore's Army, and they're helping the Hogwarts staff rebuild, they're making amends to the Goblins, they have plans to go to Australia in September after they have completed their NEWTS examinations.

They weren't grieving at all. They were living their lives away from her as far as possible. It admittedly took her a few weeks to realise it because she was caught up in her own grieve for her middle child and her happiness for her third son returning but they weren't even living with her they were living in that dreadful house of Sirius Black's!

She saw them at the Burrow for Sunday dinner recently and she could barely recognise them. When did they get so scarred? Their hands had little burn marks, their eyes looked old and weary, Hermione had a long scar across her neck, they were so shaky, they were so tired, they looked like they never slept a night since the Battle. They looked like warriors.

They were no longer the little children she knew and recently she was beginning to wonder if they ever had been.

Despite whatever reason they had to avoid her she had thought happily that Harry would spend time with Ginny while Ron took Hermione out on a proper date. But then as July was quickly coming to an end she realised Ginny had not been spending time with Harry at all and that she rarely went to the Dumbledore's Army night outs.

She had to know why. Why was nothing going to plan? Why was Ginny and Harry who were so happy together last year not even looking at one another this year? Why were Harry, Ron, and Hermione so eager to not stay home like good children and enjoy their last summer before going back to school?

"Ginny dear," Molly said, "I could not help but notice that Harry, Hermione, and Ron are here and yet you're not spending time with them. You barely get to see them as it is you should enjoy this afternoon before they leave again for that dreadful house."

"Grimmauld Place is being done up," Ginny said not bothering to look up from her magazine. "Harry has gotten rid off the portraits and heads and is having everything painted. He wants to have a nice home for Teddy to come to."

"That's nice dear, he is a good boy Harry, but that does not explain why you are not out there enjoying the sun with him."

"Oh Mum! Give it a rest, will you? Me and Harry are not going to get back together."

"I don't understand why though! You two looked so sweet together and you were ever so happy."

"I was happy," Ginny admitted. She stood up and dropped her magazine onto the kitchen table; she made her way to the window and sighed heavily as she looked out longingly. "But Harry wasn't happy Mum. Harry is only ever happy when he is with Hermione and Ron. Just look at them, Mum."

Molly looked out and saw Hermione reading while Harry and Ron were braiding her hair. Harry was doing a dreadful job while Ron – who used to do Ginny's hair all the time as a child – laughed. Hermione was saying something and it was becoming obvious as time went on, and from the boys' facial expressions, that she was quizzing them on something.

It was the happiest she had seen them since the summer before Fourth Year where Hermione used to sit between Harry and Ron in the evenings with a good book and they would end up falling asleep beside one another.

It was an endearing sight.

"They're in love with one another," Ginny said quietly, a slight bitter undertone was there, "Harry is in love with Ron and Hermione because they were the two people who wanted to know Just Harry first. They saved him. They cared for him. They were there through the worst of it all. Hermione is in love with Harry and Ron because they were her first friends, they saw more than just a bookworm, they taught her to relax, to laugh, to enjoy herself. Ron is in love with them because they think he's special, he's strong, he's their knight, but they look after him when he's feeling his lowest as well and they know he isn't perfect."

"Don't be silly, Ginny, you can't be in love with two people at the same time," Molly said firmly. But there was a little doubt there because deep down she knew it was always just the three of them and she missed out on so much so why wouldn't she miss out on what was really going on in their hearts?

"They're not little children, Mum!" Ginny snapped. "You missed that out! Back in their Fifth Year you were determined to keep them as little children but they never were, Mum, they never had the chance to be. You and the whole Wizardry would missed it. You missed all those touches, and looks, and words, and silences, you were too late in realising that by the age of fifteen those three had fought Voldemort, basilisks, dementors, Death Eaters, Umbridge, made polyjuice potion, solved mysteries, saved the school, met the worst of Hagrid's pets, and good god Mum they're about to raise a baby together with Andromeda! They were never normal so why should they try to be now?"

Ginny then stormed off upstairs and Molly clutched her chest as she sank down onto a chair. Ginny was right, she had been blind and ignorant. She had been so determined to see what she wanted that she had missed everything.

When did they start loving each other?

When did they start having these nightmares?

When did they become so hard that the idea of something being attacked wasn't so shocking for them?

When did they become so independent?

When did they become so grown up?

What had she missed in her own son's life?

She seemed to have missed everything important since he turned eleven.


End file.
